Sound Linkage
Description
More details
Other editions
Additional editions
Persons
Content
Acknowledgements x
Foreword xi
About the companion website xii
Introduction 1
Test of phonological awareness 3
Programme administration 10
Phonological training activities 10
Phonological linkage activities 12
Section 1: Identification of words as units within sentences 15
Activity 1: Introduction to the concepts of 'beginning', 'middle' and 'end' 16
Activity 2: Comprehension of the concepts of 'beginning', 'middle' and 'end' in sentences 16
Activity 3: Transferring the concepts of 'beginning', 'middle' and 'end' to an aural activity 17
Activity 4: Production of initial, final and medial words in sentences of two to four words 18
Activity 5: Matching counters to words in sentences of two to five words 19
Section 2: Identification and manipulation of syllables 21
Activity 1: Introduction to syllabic rhythm in poems (A) 22
Activity 2: Introduction to syllabic rhythm in poems (B) 23
Activity 3: Syllable blending (two to four syllables) 24
Activity 4: Introduction to syllable segmentation 25
Activity 5: Segmentation of words into syllables (two to four) 26
Activity 6: Syllable counting in words of two to four syllables 27
Activity 7: Syllable deletion 28
Section 3: Identification and supply of rhyming words 29
Activity 1: Introduction to rhyme 30
Activity 2: Discrimination of pairs of rhyming and non-rhyming words 31
Activity 3: Supplying rhymes (A) 31
Activity 4: Supplying rhymes (B) 32
Activity 5: Supplying rhymes (C) 33
Activity 6: Rhyme supply (riddles) 35
Activity 7: Discrimination of one of three words that rhymes with a target word 36
Section 4: Identification and discrimination of phonemes 37
Activity 1: Introduction to 'saying a word slowly' 38
Activity 2: Picture sound association (initial sounds of words) 38
Activity 3: Word pair discrimination 39
Activity 4: Identification of initial sounds in words 40
Activity 5: Identification of final sounds in words 42
Activity 6: Identification of medial sounds in words 44
Activity 7: Discrimination of two of three words with the same initial sound 46
Activity 8: Introduction to the concept of 'same end' sound 47
Activity 9: Discrimination of two of three words with the same final sound 48
Activity 10: Discrimination of two of three words with the same medial sound 48
Activity 11: Discrimination of word pairs with the same initial sound 49
Activity 12: Discrimination of word pairs with the same final sound 50
Activity 13: Discrimination of word pairs with the same medial sound 51
Activity 14: Discrimination of one of three words with the same initial sound as a target word 51
Activity 15: Discrimination of one of four words with a different initial sound 52
Activity 16: Discrimination of one of three words with the same final sound as a target word 54
Activity 17: Discrimination of one of four words with a different final sound 55
Section 5: Phoneme blending 57
Activity 1: Production of words from two to four sounds 58
Activity 2: Production of words from two sounds 59
Activity 3: Production of words from three sounds 59
Activity 4: Production of words from four sounds 60
Activity 5: Production of words from five sounds 61
Activity 6: Sound linkage: Blending of two sounds 62
Activity 7: Sound linkage: Blending of three sounds 63
Activity 8: Sound linkage: Blending of four sounds (initial blends) 64
Activity 9: Sound linkage: Blending of four sounds (final blends) 66
Section 6: Phoneme segmentation 69
Activity 1: Production of the initial sound of target words 70
Activity 2: Production of the final sound of target words 70
Activity 3: Production of the medial sound of target words 71
Activity 4: Introduction to the concept of breaking up a word into sounds 72
Activity 5: Introduction to segmenting a word while pushing counters into boxes 73
Activity 6: Phoneme counting with two to four counters (A) 74
Activity 7: Phoneme counting with two to four counters (B) 75
Activity 8: Segmenting words into sounds 75
Activity 9: Sound linkage: Discrimination of two of three words with the same initial 'sound' 76
Activity 10: Sound linkage: Discrimination of two of three words with the same final 'sound' 77
Activity 11: Sound linkage: Discrimination of two of three words with the same medial 'sound' 79
Section 7: Phoneme deletion 81
Activity 1: Introduction to the concepts of 'missing from' and 'without' 82
Activity 2: Introduction to the concepts of 'taken away' and 'left' in relation to sounds in words 83
Activity 3: Specification of the initial sound deleted from a word 85
Activity 4: Specification of the final sound deleted from a word 85
Activity 5: Specification of a medial sound that has been deleted from a word 86
Activity 6: Deletion of the initial sound of a word to produce another word (A) 87
Activity 7: Deletion of the initial sound of a word to produce another word (B) 88
Activity 8: Deletion of the final sound of a word to produce another word 89
Activity 9: Deletion of the medial sound of a word to produce another word 89
Activity 10: Sound linkage: Discrimination of a word produced by deleting the initial sound from a stimulus word 90
Activity 11: Sound linkage: Discrimination of a word produced by deleting the final sound from a stimulus word 92
Section 8: Phoneme substitution 95
Activity 1: Introduction to the concept of changing the beginning item of a sequence 96
Activity 2: Revision of the concept of 'first sound in a word' 96
Activity 3: Changing the initial sound of a word 97
Activity 4: Phoneme substitution (initial sound) 98
Activity 5: Phoneme substitution (final sound) 98
Activity 6: Phoneme substitution (medial sound) 99
Activity 7: Sound linkage: Substitution of initial letters/phonemes in words 100
Activity 8: Sound linkage: Substitution of final letters/phonemes in words 102
Activity 9: Sound linkage: Substitution of medial letters/phonemes in words 103
Section 9: Phoneme transposition 105
Activity 1: Defining the concept of backwards (using pictures) 106
Activity 2: Defining the concept of backwards (in relation to words) 106
Activity 3: Defining the concept of backwards (in relation to sounds in words) 107
Activity 4: Reversing the sequence of sounds in a word 108
Activity 5: Introduction to spoonerisms 109
Activity 6: Spoonerisms 110
Activity 7: Sound linkage: Reversing the sequence of sounds in a word 111
Activity 8: Sound linkage: Spoonerisms 112
Section 10: Phonological linkage activities 115
Instructions 116
Establishing a link between sounds and the written form of words 116
Using letters as clues in text reading 117
Multisyllabic words and words with suffixes and prefixes 118
Playing with words 118
Sound Linkage: Theoretical background to the programme 120
Phonological awareness and learning to read 120
The Hatcher, Hulme and Ellis study 121
Evidence from subsequent studies for the effectiveness of 'reading with phonology' programmes 126
Using sound linkage as one component of an integrated approach to teaching reading 128
Grading children's early reading books 132
Summary 132
Test development and standardisation 133
Appendix 1: Additional activities 142
Section 2: Identification and manipulation of syllables 142
Section 3: Identification and supply of rhyming words 142
Section 4: Identification and discrimination of phonemes 143
Section 5: Phoneme blending 144
Section 6: Phoneme segmentation 145
Section 7: Phoneme deletion 146
Section 8: Phoneme substitution 146
Section 9: Phoneme transposition 146
Appendix 2: Table of percentages (observed score / possible score) × 100 148
Appendix 3: Grading children's early reading books 149
Sound linkage training programme: Record Sheets 156
Record Sheet A: Test of phonological awareness 156
Record Sheet B: Identification of words as units within sentences 158
Record Sheet C: Identification and manipulation of syllables 160
Record Sheet D: Identification and supply of rhyming words 162
Record Sheet E: Identification and discrimination of phonemes 164
Record Sheet F: Phoneme blending 171
Record Sheet G: Phoneme segmentation 174
Record Sheet H: Phoneme deletion 177
Record Sheet I: Phoneme substitution 180
Record Sheet J: Phoneme transposition 183
References and Bibliography 185
Test of Phonological Awareness
Aim
The Sound Linkage test of phonological awareness takes about 10 minutes to administer. The main aims of the test are to create a profile of a child's strengths and weaknesses in phonological awareness, and to determine a child's point of entry to the training activities. As a normative test (Hatcher, 1996), it may be used to identify young children at risk of reading failure and those children whose reading delay may be attributable to limited phonological awareness skills. Following an interval of at least three (preferably six) months, the test may be re-administered in order to provide a measure of progress in acquiring phonological awareness skills. Instructions for administering and using the test are given here; information on its development and standardisation can be found in the ‘Test development and standardisation’ chapter.
Testing considerations
Materials needed: five counters, administration sheets (this chapter, p. 4 to 9) and photocopiable ‘Test of Phonological Awareness’ Record Sheet (Record Sheet A, pp. 156–157).
Administration, scoring and discontinuation
1. Before administering the test, run through it in order to familiarise yourself with the items and how to pronounce them. For example, words are separated into syllables based on spelling (e.g. croc – o – dile), but this might not best reflect how the individual syllables are pronounced (e.g. croc – u – dile).
2. The test should be administered in a quiet room free from distractions: children need to be able to hear and to concentrate in order to respond to fine differences of sounds in words.
3. Consonants need to be kept as phonetically correct as possible. Consonants such as p, t, k, th, f, v, s, z, sh, ch, h, m and n should be pronounced without adding a vowel. ‘Spot’, for example, should be pronounced /s/ /p/ /o/ /t/ and not ‘suh’ ‘puh’ ‘o’ ‘tuh’. With other consonants, b, d, g, j, w, r, l and y, the following vowel should be kept as short as possible. A one-minute video on clear pronunciation of phonemes can be found on this webpage: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BqhXUW_v-1s
4. Care should be taken to avoid giving children non-phonological clues, particularly in the rhyme section. It is possible to prime children as to the expected answer by a change of intonation, stress or volume or by pausing before a word. Body language, such as changing eye contact, can also give children help. For these reasons, try to present items in a smooth and even manner. Ideally, children should sit sideways to the examiner.
5. When children ask for an item to be repeated, it is permitted to do so, just once. Immediately after this, it should be explained that they must listen very carefully as the rest of the words or sounds will be said only once.
6. There is a time limit of about 10 seconds per item.
7. To prevent them failing unnecessarily, the test should be discontinued if children have failed eight consecutive items.
From testing to teaching
The areas of difficulty on the test can be used as a general guide for where to enter the training programme.
The earliest phonological skills to develop are awareness of words, syllables and rhyming relationships between words. If a child makes any errors on the syllable blending or rhyme subtests, we suggest that some time is spent on training these skills using the first three sections of the teaching programme. However, for reading development, awareness of phonemes in spoken words is the most critical skill and we suggest that teaching progresses to developing phoneme awareness as soon as possible (using sections 4 through 10).
Children who made no errors on the syllable blending or rhyme subtest, but made errors on any of the phoneme awareness subtests, should begin with phoneme awareness training. As a guide, we suggest that such children should begin the training at section 4, ‘Identification and discrimination of phonemes’. Sections 4 through 10 are ordered according to their level of difficulty for most children. We would recommend that teachers use these sections flexibly, but work through these different exercises to ensure that children have a secure foundation in being able to hear phonemes in words, blend and segment phonemes, and manipulate phonemes flexibly in conjunction with letters.
Syllable blending
Say:
I am going to pretend to be a robot who can only say words in a funny way. I want you to try to guess what I am saying.
Pronounce the word ‘biscuit’ leaving a one-second gap between each syllable:
bis – cuit
Help the children if they cannot do it. Present the next exemplar in the same way.
di – no – saur
Say:
What do you think the robot is trying to say now? Listen carefully.
Correct response Yes No win – dow [ ] [ ] croc – o – dile [ ] [ ] phot – o – graph [ ] [ ] tel – e – scope [ ] [ ] ad – ven – ture [ ] [ ] mer – ry – go – round [ ] [ ] Total [ ]/6Phoneme blending
When pronouncing phonemes, leave a one-second gap between each. Say:
The robot is now going to say some short sounds. See if you can make them into words.
t – a – p
Help children if they cannot do it.
Present the next exemplar in the same way.
d – o – g
Say:
What do you think the robot is trying to say now?
Correct response Yes No e – gg [ ] [ ] r – ai – n [ ] [ ] s – ou – p [ ] [ ] d – i – s – c [ ] [ ] s – t – e – p [ ] [ ] s – o – f – t [ ] [ ] Total [ ]/6Rhyme
Say:
Have you heard of Hickory, dickory dock? Hickory, dickory dock, the mouse ran up the ___ [clock]? Dock and clock are different words, but they sound a bit the same. Listen. Dock, clock.
Do you know Jack and Jill? Jack and Jill went up the ___ [hill]? Jill and hill are different words, but they sound a bit the same. Jill, hill. Can you think of another word that sounds a bit like Jill?
Does ‘fill’ sound a bit like ‘hill’? What about ‘pill’? Does ‘pill’ sound a bit like ‘hill’?
What about ‘did’? Does ‘did’ sound like ‘hill’ and ‘pill’?
Give the children feedback after their answers, but do not tell them to listen to rhyming sounds or to the last sound.
Say:
I am going to say three words and I want you to tell me the one that sounds the most different.
Pronounce the following with equal emphasis, at one-second intervals:
hat, fat, man
If a child got it wrong, say:
No. ‘Man’ was the one that sounds most different. Listen again.
hat, fat, man
Now try these:
peg, hen, beg
If a child got it wrong, say:
No. ‘Hen’ was the one that sounds most different. Listen again.
peg, hen, beg
Present the following sets of words and before each say:
Tell me the word that sounds most different.
Correct response Yes No dog, pot, log [ ] [ ] late, mate, fat [ ] [ ] bad, cap, mad [ ] [ ] bun, hug, mug [ ] [ ] hill, pill, dim [ ] [ ] net, ten, pen [ ] [ ] Total [ ]/6Phoneme segmentation
Say:
Now it's your turn to talk in robot language. How do you think the robot would say...
